IPSWICH Town defender Alex Bruce has warned that the Blues will slip out of the play-off reckoning if they don't start winning away from home.

By Derek Davis

IPSWICH Town defender Alex Bruce has warned that the Blues will slip out of the play-off reckoning if they don't start winning away from home.

A failure to secure all three points at home for the second time in four games has added to concerns about the amount of points they are losing on the road.

Bruce said: “We are under pressure anyway to pick up an away win so it is important for us to win at Leicester and go to Coventry in form.“We have to look at last year when we went to Coventry and got all three points and put in a good performance.

“We know that if we don't start winning away and drop too many points at home then we will drop out of the top six. We will try not to slip away but we know we have to pick up on our performances.”

Town stayed in sixth place on Saturday after the goal-less draw with Burnley, who had a man sent off on the stroke of half time.

John Spicer's dismissal changed the complexion of the match with Burnley happy to defend for just the point instead of being more adventurous after the break. Bruce said: “They set their stall out to shut us down and did it very well. We tried to break them down but they were too strong so unfortunately we could not do that.

“It was more open when it was 11 v 11 and the sending-off changed the game

“We had two great chances to score in the first half but after the sending-off they shut up shop and we couldn't break them down.”

After missing out in the past three matches due to injury Bruce was delighted to be in the side and with not conceding a goal.

He said: “The clean sheet was a bonus but I would have happily swapped that for the three points.”

n Sito Castro stayed overnight in hospital suffering from concussion after going off after 20 minutes complaining of double vision. It is highly unlikely that he will be available for Wednesday's trip to Leicester.

That will pave the way for out-of-favour defender Dan Harding to return to the left-back berth, although Matt Richards, who has returned from a loan spell at Brighton, is also in contention.